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Canotexús
Classification and Dialects Visual Phonology ''Consonants'' ''Vowels'' Phonotactics Syllables follow one of two general patterns: ©3V©2 or N© Any single consonant may appear as an onset. The possible initial syllable clusters can be a (fricative)(plosive), optionally followed by medials /w/, /r/, /l/, /j/, which may also follow single consonants. So, basically the initial clusters are represented by this: (Fricative)(Plosive/Affricate)(Approximate/Lateral). V is any vowel or diphthong the most common diphthongs are /aɪ̯/, /aʊ̯/, /ɔɪ̯/, and /uɪ̯/. N is a syllabic nasal, which may be followed by a coda but may not be preceded by an onset. The possible final syllable clusters can be (lateral/nasal)(plosive/affricate/fricative) or (lateral/nasal/fricative)(plosive/affricate). Writing System Aaaa is used instead of Ää if /æ/ is the central vowel in a monosyllabic root. Áá and Úú make the same sound /ə/, but Áá is generally used when the syllable doesn't have a coda (always when at the end of a word) while, Úú is generally used when the syllable has a coda. No matter, how the syllable boundries change when a root is inflected it remains the same character as used in the root. Cc is almost always pronounced as /k/, but before é or ĩ its sometimes pronounced as /s/. Qq is almost always pronounced as /tʃ/. Qq only ever makes /k/ when followed by Ww. Grammar Nouns Nouns decline according to case, number, and definiteness. Here is the plain table: And here is an example using book: When a noun ending in á is declined, á is either dropped and the suffix is added or it changes to a (Shown above). When a noun ending in a consonant is declined, the suffix is just added to the end (Shown below). ''Mass Nouns'' Mass nouns behave exactly like normal nouns do except they are always in singular form. Verbs The infinitive form of a verb is formed by adding the suffix -pá. The standard negative form of verb can be achieved by adding the prefix zo-, the habitual suffix is ni. Here is the conjugation of bring: ''Copula'' Sometimes the arguments of the copula are not explicitly marked for nominative and accusative case. Zero-Copula: the copula may be and generally is excluded as long as it is present tense indicative; the copula is needed for all other conjugations except in some cases the past tense can be excluded if its obvious by context. These conjugations are as follows including the present tense indicative: Example of zero-copula: Coco wĩlúmagl. (Coco is at the table.) While "Coco wĩlúmagl kĩ." means the same thing and is perfectly valid, but speakers tend to eliminate the copula, although not using zero-copula is often used to emphasis a statement, and is used in formal language. Derivation Adjective Derivation The suffix -ante can be added to nouns and the present form of verbs to form an adjectives. For example mundél (sound) can be used to form mundélante (quiet). ''Agentive Derivation'' The suffix for agentive derivation is -úr, -úr is thing that does. The suffix is added to the present form of the verb. For example, wíflgúr (door) can be derived from the verb wífol (close). The second suffix for agentive derivation is -do and rarely -dam. This suffix can also affect the root making it more complicated. For example wexoji (ship) can be derived to wexodo (crew member) or ter (travel) and terado (traveler). ''Patientive Derivation'' The suffix for patientive derivation is -ar which is thing which something is done to. The suffix is adding to the present form of the verb. Pronouns The Genitive pronouns differ slighty from what would be expect with declension, the male and female 3rd person pronouns are completely different but, most notably is that the first person genitive is used as the suffix -xá. The suffix is just attached to the back of the word after the case suffix. Adjuncts Canotexús has both adjectives and adverbs. Adjectives follow the noun that they describe. Yax wĩlúmét oslúm yaafpá grĩforak. 1S.NOM table-ACC orange you-DAT give-PST I gave you an orange table. Adverbs that describe adjectives follow the adjective. Wĩlúml drená vénde ke vokétl ledarpá jĩcél. table-NOM.DEF heavy very so it-ACC.DEF carry-INF difficult The table is very heavy so it is hard to carry. Adverbs that describe verbs follow the verb. Syntax The head-direction is initial. The general word order is SOV, Although case allows for some variation. ''Noun Phrases'' A noun phrase consists of a noun optionally followed by adjectives, adverbs or acting adjective phrases. Although all modifiers follow the noun there is a proper order that they should be placed in. The order of modifiers and relative clauses is shown below, and further description is provided below. The order of modifiers is determined by how you want them to be applied to the base noun. ''Relative Clauses'' Relative clauses allow you to describe things with more detail than you could with modifiers.Often, the job of a relative clause is to have the effected noun phrase perform an action that is separate from the main verb of the statement. Sometimes this action can be a relation with usage of the copula, which is often excluded because of the zero copula system (which is explained earlier). A relative clause consists of a predicate (non-subject nouns followed by a verb, which usually marks the end of a relative clause) preceded by the relativizer 'tlúná'. Here is an example of a simple relation: Yaaf nométl tlúná wĩlúmagl yaxpá grĩforag. 2S.NOM book-ACC-DEF REL table-LOC-DEF 1S-DAT give-IMP Give me the book that is on the table. But, generally the relativizer is inflected to match the noun it follows and placed after the verb making the statement more condensed. Although, this is generally dependant on the sentence, it is usually not done with relations (relative clauses that use the copula) like the previous example is. ''Adpositional Phrases'' Prepositional phrases can be formed using nouns, the preposition is placed infront noun. Often, the noun is left uninflected by case when used in conjunction with a preposition. In a similar manner to relative clauses they can be placed after the verb and generally are. Yax tlobét tĩcon altá yaaf bústak. 1S.NOM box-ACC this for you gather-PST Yax tlobét tĩcon bústak altá yaaf. 1S.NOM box-ACC this gather-PST for you I got this box for you. Lexicon Example text Category:Languages